AMD Radeon RX 560X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Comparison

FAQ

Q: What is the average benchmark score for the AMD Radeon RX 560X?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 560X has an average benchmark score of 18,626, placing it at the 62nd percentile of all GPUs in the database.

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti's average score compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti has an average score of 15,548, which is 1.7% above the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580, and 0.8% below the AMD Radeon Pro W5500.

Q: Which GPU wins in the Geekbench Vulkan benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins with a score of 40,511, which is 50.1% higher than the RX 560X's score of 20,231.

Q: What are the memory capacities of these two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 560X has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR5X memory on a 352-bit bus.

Q: What is the transistor density of each chip?

A: The RX 560X's Polaris 21 chip has a density of 24.4 million transistors per square millimeter, while the GTX 1080 Ti's GP102 chip has 25.1 million per square millimeter.

Q: What is the production status of both cards?

A: Both the AMD Radeon RX 560X and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti are marked as end-of-life in the database.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architecture families, built on different process nodes and at different scale. The AMD Radeon RX 560X uses the Polaris 21 chip, based on the GCN 4.0 architecture, manufactured by GlobalFoundries on a 14 nm process. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti uses the GP102 chip, based on the Pascal architecture, manufactured by TSMC on a 16 nm process. The RX 560X belongs to the Polaris (RX 500X) generation, while the GTX 1080 Ti belongs to the GeForce 10-series generation.

The physical scale difference is substantial. The Polaris 21 die measures 123 mm² and contains 3,000 million transistors. The GP102 die measures 471 mm² and contains 11,800 million transistors. Despite the much larger die, the transistor density is similar: 24.4M / mm² for the RX 560X versus 25.1M / mm² for the GTX 1080 Ti. This means the GTX 1080 Ti's advantage comes from sheer scale rather than density.

Compute resources differ dramatically. The RX 560X has 1,024 shading units, 64 texture mapping units, and 16 raster operations pipelines. The GTX 1080 Ti has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 88 ROPs. The NVIDIA card has more than three times the shading units and more than three times the texture units. Neither card has dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores.

Clock behavior also differs. The RX 560X has a base clock of 1175 MHz and a boost clock of 1275 MHz. The GTX 1080 Ti has a base clock of 1481 MHz and a boost clock of 1582 MHz. The NVIDIA card starts higher and boosts higher, compounding its architectural advantage.

Memory architecture is another major point of divergence. The RX 560X uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s. The GTX 1080 Ti uses 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus, yielding a bandwidth of 484.4 GB/s. The memory clock difference is also notable: 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) for the RX 560X versus 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective) for the GTX 1080 Ti. The GTX 1080 Ti's wider bus and faster effective data rate result in a bandwidth advantage of more than four times.

The power envelope is similarly lopsided. The RX 560X has a TDP of 75 W with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W. The GTX 1080 Ti has a TDP of 250 W, requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector, and a suggested PSU of 600 W. The RX 560X is a dual-slot card at 170 mm (6.7 inches) in length. The GTX 1080 Ti is also dual-slot but measures 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length, with a height of 112 mm (4.4 inches) and width of 40 mm (1.6 inches).

Bus interface also differs: the RX 560X uses PCIe 3.0 x8, while the GTX 1080 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs are similar in type but not count: the RX 560X has one DVI, one HDMI 2.0b, and one DisplayPort 1.4a, while the GTX 1080 Ti has one HDMI 2.0 and three DisplayPort 1.4a. API support differs in DirectX and Vulkan versions: the RX 560X supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3, while the GTX 1080 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database includes two direct head-to-head benchmark comparisons between these cards, and the GTX 1080 Ti wins both by wide margins.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 560X scores 17,020 while the GTX 1080 Ti scores 67,929. That is a delta of 74.9% in favor of the NVIDIA card, making the GTX 1080 Ti's OpenCL result nearly four times higher. This is consistent with the raw compute specifications: the GTX 1080 Ti has 11.34 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput versus 2.611 TFLOPS for the RX 560X, a gap of over four times. The GTX 1080 Ti's texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s and pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s dwarf the RX 560X's 81.60 GTexel/s and 20.40 GPixel/s.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 560X scores 20,231 while the GTX 1080 Ti scores 40,511. The delta is 50.1% in favor of NVIDIA. This is a smaller relative gap than in OpenCL, suggesting that the Vulkan workload narrows the difference somewhat, though the GTX 1080 Ti still produces double the score. Notably, the RX 560X's Vulkan score of 20,231 is higher than its OpenCL score of 17,020, while the GTX 1080 Ti's Vulkan score of 40,511 is much lower than its OpenCL score of 67,929. The RX 560X appears to handle Vulkan relatively better than OpenCL, while the GTX 1080 Ti shows the opposite pattern.

The aggregate picture is clear: the GTX 1080 Ti wins both head-to-head tests, with a combined record of 2 wins and 0 losses in the database's direct comparison. The RX 560X does not win any head-to-head benchmark against this opponent.

Looking at the average benchmark scores, the RX 560X has an average of 18,626, which is actually higher than the GTX 1080 Ti's average of 15,548. However, this average is computed across different test suites. The RX 560X's average is based on two tests (Geekbench OpenCL and Vulkan), both of which are compute-oriented. The GTX 1080 Ti's average includes a wider range of tests, including Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12 tests, Passmark G2D and G3D tests, and Passmark GPU compute, plus Geekbench Metal, OpenCL, and Vulkan tests. The GTX 1080 Ti's OpenCL score of 67,929 is its highest recorded benchmark, but its average is pulled down by much lower scores in other tests, such as Passmark DirectX 12 at 66, Passmark DirectX 10 at 118, and Passmark DirectX 11 at 151. The GTX 1080 Ti also scores 18,600 in Passmark G3D, 9,632 in Passmark GPU compute, and 939 in Passmark G2D, and 30,624 in Geekbench Metal.

The percentile rankings reflect these differing test profiles. The RX 560X sits at the 62nd percentile of all GPUs, while the GTX 1080 Ti sits at the 58th percentile. Despite its much higher raw scores in the head-to-head tests, the GTX 1080 Ti's lower percentile is a function of the broader benchmark suite applied to it in the database.

Specification Differences

The following table summarizes only the fields where the two cards differ:

| Specification | AMD Radeon RX 560X | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti |

|---|---|---|

| Chip | Polaris 21 | GP102 |

| Architecture | GCN 4.0 | Pascal |

| Generation | Polaris (RX 500X) | GeForce 10 |

| Process node | 14 nm | 16 nm |

| Foundry | GlobalFoundries | TSMC |

| Transistors | 3,000 million | 11,800 million |

| Die size | 123 mm² | 471 mm² |

| Transistor density | 24.4M / mm² | 25.1M / mm² |

| Base clock | 1175 MHz | 1481 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1275 MHz | 1582 MHz |

| Memory clock | 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) | 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective) |

| Memory size | 4 GB | 11 GB |

| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR5X |

| Memory bus width | 128 bit | 352 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 112.0 GB/s | 484.4 GB/s |

| Shading units | 1024 | 3584 |

| TMUs | 64 | 224 |

| ROPs | 16 | 88 |

| Pixel rate | 20.40 GPixel/s | 139.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 81.60 GTexel/s | 354.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.611 TFLOPS | 11.34 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 2.611 TFLOPS (1:1) | 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64) |

| TDP | 75 W | 250 W |

| Power connectors | None | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 250 W | 600 W |

| Bus interface | PCIe 3.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x DisplayPort 1.4a | 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan | 1.3 | 1.4 |

| Dimensions | 170 mm (6.7 inches) length | 267 mm (10.5 inches) length, 112 mm (4.4 inches) height, 40 mm (1.6 inches) width |

| Release date | 2018-04-10 | 2017-03-09 |

| Predecessor | Polaris | GeForce 900 |

| Successor | Vega | GeForce 20 |

| Launch MSRP | None | 699 USD |

Both cards are dual-slot, have the same production status of end-of-life, support OpenGL 4.6, and have no ray tracing or tensor cores.

The Verdict

The data in the database points to an unequivocal performance hierarchy: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti dominates the AMD Radeon RX 560X in both direct head-to-head benchmarks. In Geekbench OpenCL, the GTX 1080 Ti leads by 74.9%, and in Geekbench Vulkan, it leads by 50.1%. The GTX 1080 Ti wins both recorded comparisons, and the RX 560X wins none.

The GTX 1080 Ti's advantage is rooted in its architecture and scale. It has 3,584 shading units versus 1,024, 224 TMUs versus 64, and 88 ROPs versus 16. Its FP32 throughput of 11.34 TFLOPS is more than four times the RX 560X's 2.611 TFLOPS. Its memory bandwidth of 484.4 GB/s is more than four times the RX 560X's 112.0 GB/s. Its pixel rate of 139.2 GPixel/s is nearly seven times the RX 560X's 20.40 GPixel/s, and its texture rate of 354.4 GTexel/s is more than four times the RX 560X's 81.60 GTexel/s.

The RX 560X does have some attributes that favor it. Its TDP of 75 W is one-third of the GTX 1080 Ti's 250 W, and it requires no power connectors, while the GTX 1080 Ti requires a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector. The RX 560X's suggested PSU of 250 W is much lower than the GTX 1080 Ti's 600 W. The RX 560X is also shorter at 170 mm versus 267 mm, which may fit in more compact cases. Its FP16 throughput of 2.611 TFLOPS (1:1 ratio) is actually higher than the GTX 1080 Ti's 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), which could matter for workloads that use half-precision compute. The RX 560X also has a higher average benchmark score of 18,626 versus 15,548, and a higher percentile ranking at 62 versus 58, though these figures reflect different test suites rather than direct comparability.

Who should pick which? For anyone prioritizing compute performance, graphics throughput, or memory bandwidth, the database clearly favors the GTX 1080 Ti. Its scores in OpenCL and Vulkan are far higher, and its raw specifications support that result across every major compute and graphics metric. The GTX 1080 Ti also carries a launch MSRP of 699 USD, which the RX 560X lacks in the database.

The RX 560X is the appropriate choice when power consumption and physical footprint are the primary constraints. Its 75 W TDP, lack of power connectors, 250 W suggested PSU, and shorter card length make it suitable for systems where the GTX 1080 Ti's 250 W TDP, 600 W suggested PSU, and 267 mm length would be impractical. The RX 560X also offers superior FP16 throughput at a 1:1 ratio, which the GTX 1080 Ti does not match with its 1:64 ratio. For half-precision compute tasks, the RX 560X is the better option in the database's data.